Letter: Defining chutzpah

Nov. 18, 2018

To the Editor:

When I was at St John's Law School many years ago, I had Adjunct Professor of Ethics, Mario Cuomo, then an appellate lawyer and later the governor of New York. In the course, he defined chutzpah as a boy who kills his mother and father and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an ophan.

I can't help thinking of this definition when I hear Republicans, including the head divider, screaming about election fraud. This is chutzpah of the enth degree. Just think of what the Republican's did in Georgia, Kansas and North Dakota and probably a multiple of other elections.

In Georgia, where the man who controlled the voting rolls was running for governor; In North Dakota, where Indians who live on reservations were required to have street addresses when they usually have P.O. boxes on their IDs, and Kansas, where in Dodge City 13,000 voters (many Mexicans) were forced to vote at one location, which was out of town and difficult to get to.

Of course, there were many other acts of Republican fraud. In light of these, Trump and his minions have the audacity to cry foul and bring lawsuits .Of course, if these cases end up in the Supreme Court, Trump has a majority that will most likely support his position. What worries me most is that a large minority of Americans support this hypocritical, prevaricating bully. That is the real threat to democracy.